I occasionally come across these comments on random subreddits. And I’m always like really? Is this normal?
I’m from europe and like 3k a month is an insane lot of money. Like top salary. That would come around to 36k a year ‘net’.
Is life just insanely expensive in America? Or is everyone rich? Or am I missing something here???
Because isn’t like 6 figure 100000 a year? And 7 like 10000000? I mean what the heck?
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I think more people are making more money around you than you think.
That said, six figures isn’t super uncommon. The median household income is 70% of that.
7 or 8 figures most certainly is not common.
Really what? People all over the world can make large amounts of money. If the job calls for it, that’s what it pays. Not like people in Europe can’t make just as much in their respective careers. Not sure what’s odd about that.
>Is life just insanely expensive in America?
Life doesn’t have to be expensive for you to be paid what you’re worth.
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To put this into perspective, about 9% of working Americans make $100k or more a year. That’s really not that many people considering the number of high paying careers there are (doctors, lawyers, scientist, upper management, etc.)
[https://webtribunal.net/blog/how-many-people-make-over-100k/#gref](https://webtribunal.net/blog/how-many-people-make-over-100k/#gref)
I don’t think someone working for someone else makes 7+ figures. Unless you include pro athletes in that. But yeah, I work in IT and know many people making 6 figures, most in the 150k – 200k range.
The US Median individual person’s income is about $37k USD, the numbers you see on reddit are far above average.
Edit: If you exclude people who are unemployed or only work part time, that value jumps up to $56k
https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/p60/273/tableA6.xlsx
Median household income is like 70k here, so yes there are plenty of people who are making six figures. Seven figures is much rarer; the top 1% threshold for income in the US is less than that. But still when you think about how many Americans there are, it could still be something like two million households making that much money.
> I’m from europe and like 3k a month is an insane lot of money. Like top salary. That would come around to 36k a year ‘net’.
I dunno about Europe but I would have expected salaries to be reported pre-tax, i.e. gross, not net.
In any event, per this:
https://uk.indeed.com/career/software-engineer/salaries/London
Your average software engineer in London is making 65k GBP per year.
Per [another](https://www.caissarecruitment.com/blog/software-developer-salary-berlin-germany/) (admittedly random, Googling around) website, in Germany:
> In Berlin Software Developer salary can range from €50,000 – €170,000 on average
So…
$100,000 per year is a common salary figure. In some very expensive cities like San Francisco, a huge proportion of people are making 6-figure incomes and living like normal middle class people because it’s SO expensive to live there. You can hardly buy a house if you “only” make low six-figures. I had a job there and made $100,000 for a couple years and it did not make me feel well off. I was still grateful to have an affordable apartment.
It’s much less common to meet people who make more than $250,000 per year but they are out there!
People who make seven figures (a million or more) are rather rare and tend to be folks in leadership roles at large organizations, famous performers, or people in a small handful of extremely lucrative industries.
As with most things in America, there is huge variation from place to place. There are far fewer people in Mississippi making six figure salaries than in California or New York. But still, even in Mississippi a successful lawyer or business owner can certainly make that much money, and people like the head of the biggest hospital or president of the state university (and the football coach) are making $1million+.
6 figures is reachable with experience, senior accountants and senior financial analysts in my company make that much. I don’t know anyone who makes 7 figures, C-suite executives I’m guessing.
Our professionals here such as doctors, lawyers, nurses, IT, tech scale way way higher for salary than in Europe.
Reddit had a lot of tech bros and the like on it so you aren’t going to get an accurate view. Like I’m typing this at work, a mechanic or other blue collar worker likely doesn’t have time to Reddit at work
Americans use gross salary when discussing the topic, not net.
Also, $3K/month is not an insane lot of money… It was a halfway decent salary 25 years ago, but not anymore.
6 figures is fairly common, particularly in some areas of the country.
7 & 8 is rare all throughout the country.
Most redditors are lying. I’ve never run across so many 35 year old retired people as I do on here.
> Or am I missing something here???
Yeah
“Only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck and still keep your attitude on self-destruct.” – MF Doom
In San Francisco, $36K is basically minimum wage. Our minimum wage is $16.99/hour which works out to $35,339 for full time workers. I’m order to have a non-hourly job (eg, salaried, but may sometimes have to work more than 40 hours a week or 8 hours in a day for no extra pay), California requires a minimum salary of $64,480. So hope that puts things in perspective. When that is your minimum, it only goes up from there. I am in my forties, and I know a lot of people who make six figures. When I was in my twenties, I don’t think I knew any personally.
Life is not insanely expensive where I live but yeah, $3k/month is nothing. I’m making way more than that.
I know multiple people who make over $100k/ year or close to it
Yes, salaries in the US for high-education careers like engineers, programmers, business consultants, and physicians are typically MUCH higher than comparable careers in Europe, though amounts depend a lot on where you are geographically (the same job on the west coast or in NYC will pay way more than one in the south or midwest, but with a much higher cost of living so you actually usually come out ahead financially with the lower salaries in those places).
I currently make 120k as a lowest-level data scientist at my job in a mid-tier COL area with a MS degree and about 1-2 years of experience in my field before starting, and most of my older coworkers are much higher. I looked at job postings in various European countries such as the UK a while back out of curiosity, and it was shocking to me how much lower the numbers were. However, I later realized that European advertised salaries are after-tax whereas American salaries are posted/discussed before-tax, so for high salaries generally estimate about 70-75% of the posted salary being take-home pay. However, everyone’s taxes are different so it’s complicated (this is also why our tax filings are generally more complicated, because they depend on way more variables). American salaries for those roles were still a bit higher after that math, but not as drastically so, especially considering that London is as expensive as any American city.
Life is generally a little more expensive, yes; less things like healthcare are covered by the government, so in most jobs you still pay for some though not all of your healthcare coverage after your salary. But if you have a job at that level you’re still better off in the end. Where Americans struggle is at the lower end, where their salaries are more comparable to European low-end salaries but the government benefits are much less.
Yearly salaries over 1m are very rare outside of CEOs of big companies, athletes, and elite surgeons and lawyer partners, all of which are extremely rare positions. However, what is slightly more common is tech earners in the mid-6-figures receiving equity (company stock) as part of their total compensation package, which if the company grows a lot over their tenure might start approaching those values.
Americans tend to report income as gross, not net. So that’s part of it. But yes, Americans make more for the same job than many other countries. Coming here as a young person for a decade or so and banking a whole bunch of money and then going home to Europe to raise a family, get healthcare, etc is a good strategy if you can make it work.
Americans talk about salary before taxes are taken out, whereas Europeans (I believe) talk about salary after taxes.
6 figure salaries are common for certain jobs, such as tech, doctors/dentists/surgeons, etc.
Even after taxes I make just over $4,000/month and that’s not even a 6 figure salary.
Worth noting that when people are talking about salary in the U.S. we’re almost always talking about the total gross income before any taxes or deductions. I mention this because it seems like a lot of Europeans are used to talking about salary in terms of net income.
A person with a net income of $3,000/month in the US probably makes roughly $4,500-$5,500 before taxes insurance and deductions. And would state their income as $55,000-$65,000.
If someone here says they make $3,000 a month in the U.S. they mean pre-tax. Their net income is probably more like $2,000/month.
Someone who says they make $100,000 a year again is talking about pre-taxes and deductions and probably has a net income of more like $60-70k. That’s not super common, but it’s also not considered mega rich here. That’s more like upper middle class, lower end of wealthy.
7 or 8 figure salaries are very rare and would be considered very rich. I don’t know anyone outside of major corporate CEOs, actors and pro athletes who make that kinda money.
I make a good six figure income. It allows my wife to be a stay at home mom for our 3 kids and give us a comfortable middle class life style.
>I occasionally come across these comments on random subreddits. And I’m always like really? Is this normal?
It’s not normal…but certainly not unheard of. Many people with normal jobs (ie, not just doctors and lawyers and professional athletes) make six figures and more.
>I’m from europe and like 3k a month is an insane lot of money. Like top salary. That would come around to 36k a year ‘net’.
I absolutely do not believe that 3k per month is an “insane” amount of money in Europe. That being said…I just Googled it…and according to the top result: [“According to data from the Average Salary Survey website, the average gross salary in Belgium is €61,357 a year. This is €37,923 after taxes.”](https://www.expatica.com/be/working/employment-law/belgium-minimum-wage-972342/#:~:text=.belgium.be.-,Average%20salary%20in%20Belgium,Company%20director%3A%20%E2%82%AC129%2C150) I want to take this opportunity to point out that in the US if someone says they “make $100k”, that means before taxes and other withholdings. So someone could say they make 6 figures, but their paychecks over a 12 month period might only add up to $70k-$80k. Not sure if that makes you feel better or not.
>Is life just insanely expensive in America? Or is everyone rich? Or am I missing something here???
>
>Because isn’t like 6 figure 100000 a year? And 7 like 10000000? I mean what the heck?
I’ve spent a decent amount of time in western Europe and it doesn’t feel any less expensive than NYC. Scandinavia feels more expensive to me. I’ve never lived anywhere other than the US so I can’t say for certain but I’m sure that cost of living is easily Google-able for you.
Personally, I work in middle management in advertising. All of my peers make 6 figures and there are many levels of folks above me in my agency leadership and then more folks above my them in our holding company’s US/Americas leadership and then even more folks above them in our global/corporate leadership that make much much much more than I do. We’re not doctors, we’re not lawyers, we’re not tech entrepreneurs or celebrities.
I can tell you I was offered a comparable job in the UK that is not a doctor, lawyer or highly specialized and it was definitely higher than the average in the UK but significantly lower than what I make in the US. Ultimately I think I could have made it work but it would have been an adjustment. I’m not an expert on salary in the US compared to Europe but in what I researched to make my decision there is a higher potential for earning here than there, at least for some.
Median income is $31,133.
We are responsible for health care costs.
Average rent is about $1800.
So while the numbers might seem big it doesn’t seem that off.
About 10% of Americans make more than 200,000.
We have to pay a LOT more for healthcare, rent/housing, and to a lesser extent transportation.
One other factor is the currency conversion between euros and USD..
The median household income in my city is $120,000/year
I make high fives (figures that is). I’m paid well. My wife and I spend about $48k a year to live in the US. We live in one of the cheapest states.
America is unbelievably expensive. Literally every place in society besides maybe the library you are expected to spend money.
In the 100k-250k range you find a lot of people in tech and finance, those would be the people likely talking about the 6 figure salary. 7 is unheard of for a common person in the US.
Taxes are big piece of this. When people say their salary is $150k, they don’t include taxes. Depending on where you live and how many dependents you have, taxes will vary. For myself making $165k (not anymore, I left the industry as a whole), after state taxes, federal taxes, social security, etc, my net pay was actually closer to $112k. So there’s 1/3 of the money right there
Then living expenses. Again, this greatly depends on the city and state you live in, whether you own or rent. This can be anywhere from $1100-$3000/mo.
Student loan debt is also very common. It’s not uncommon for people to owe $500-$1500/mo in student loans.
Don’t even get me started on the cost of health insurance and medical bills.
Engineers should be making at least $70k/year on their first job. Actual starting salaries varies depending on engineering discipline, industry, and company. But less than $70k is underpaid. You should then break six figures after 5 years or so of experience. A lot of engineers (especially software engineers) will make well above six figures on their first job.
Seven figures however is extremely rare. No average Joe makes that amount of money.
Compared to Europe, skilled workers get paid a lot more. However the benefits suck in comparison: health insurance, any kind of leave (vacation, sick, parental), unemployment benefits, etc.
Salaries are significantly higher on average in the US than Europe. Especially for skilled white collar jobs like engineering, software development, medicine, law, etc. $100,000+ salaries are extremely common for those sorts of professions, especially in higher cost of living areas.
> month is an insane lot of money. Like top salary. That would come around to 36k a year ‘net’.
Where in Europe? I work with many Italians, Germans, Austrians, and people from GB and the impression I’ve gotten from them is thst 36k is not very much money. Certainly they all make more than that unless they are doing be very entry level work and are new to the company.
I make anywhere from 80k to 100k a year and all I do is sell mattresses. My salary is only $38,880 but with commission and bonuses I do well. I also live in PA which is not a super expensive state. America can be a weird place. I have friends with college degrees who make less than me, and I have friends who are in trades that make more than me.
Idk where you’re seeing 7 and 8 figure salaries.
6 is still well above median but is becoming increasingly common with inflation and whatnot.
When you see people throwing around their salaries on Reddit (and anywhere on the internet), keep in mind there’s a self selection bias. People making more money will tend to be less shy about saying what they make, whereas lower income folks are more apt to keep that number to themselves. This can skew your perspective real quick
After moving from Canada to America, I have learned in America, it is all relative. 7/8 figures is not common. 6 figures is not highly uncommon however. Also, depending where you live in this country, it is way cheaper than Canada by far. Since living in the States, I have been able to afford life more comfortably as well as keep more of what I earn. Been here for years and I still drop my jaw at how I can afford groceries and a home 💕. However I will be moving back to Canada temporarily and I am already in tears at the insane costs of everything. Anywho. Take my experience for whatever it is worth to you.
Long story short, America is not expensive. Easy to save money. Canada expensive. Hard to save money.
I work in IT.
My European counterparts get paid significantly less than I do for the same work.
Well not the same, they work at their own pace and through Union Reps.
Bear in mind, salary quotes for the US are typically gross income- before taxes and deductions for SSI, retirement contributions, medical, dental, etc. a $60k salary will typically net about $42k, or $3500 per month. At that same rate a $100k salary will net about $5500 per month. It’s not as much as you may think it is.
Different areas in the US have different costs of living. People in high COL areas make more money, but also spend more money. My kids’ day care cost my about $2k per month. The average rent here is over $2k per month, especially if I want more than one bedroom. In order to survive here, I have to make more than the $3k you listed. On the other hand, I live in one of the most expensive places in the country. It’s not the same for everyone.
Six-figure salaries ($100,000+) are fairly common. Currently, about 18% of individuals earn $100,000 or more, and about 1/3 of household have $100,000+ income.
Seven and eight figure salaries are very rare… CEO’s, bigger real estate developers, celebrities, pro athletes, investment bankers, top law firm partners, etc. A $1m income put somebody in top 0.5% of income (1 in 200+ people).
The tax situation for someone earning $100,000 will vary a lot based on where they live, any home they might own, or a number of different variables. We can take a conservative 20% income tax to represent federal, state, and local income taxes. The real rate is probably closer to 18%, but I’m not sure and so I’m sticking with round numbers.
Social Security and Medicare taxes are extra and account for an additional 7.65% of tax. There is a cap, but you reach it at $160,200, so it’s not part of the calculation.
I will not add property tax to this because we can consider it rolled up into rent or other standard payments taken out of after tax pay.
So at 27.65%, the $100,000 becomes $72,350 annually, or $6,029 monthly. Today, €1 = $1.076, so it’s €5,603 monthly, thereabouts.
This thread is all over the place lol. The fact is that in the US we talk about salary as gross, before taxes or anything else are taken out of our checks. This is because deductions can vary wildly depending on where you live.
A lot of people are also throwing out that the average household income in the US is something like 75K The problem with that statistic is that “household” is not well defined. If you read the methodology of those statistics, you will find out that “household” means anyone living in the same house. They do not have to be married or even related. Working teenagers are included. Part time, full-time, multiple jobs… It doesn’t matter if you make money and live in the same house it is all included in household statistics.
So if you look at the median income for an individual in the US it was around 46k (gross) as of last year- this means half of people made less than that. But those are gross numbers. You would have to take out federal taxes, state taxes, any local taxes, and FICA. Then, to compare apples to apples with Belgium or any other European nation, you would also have to take out any of our health care costs including our insurance premiums and out of pocket costs. This also can vary wildly from person to person. And all of the numbers I’m putting here is across the entire US, if you live in San Francisco versus Knoxville Tennessee these numbers are going to be extremely different.
To answer your question directly, an *individual* with a 100K salary in the US puts you in the top 18% of income. To be in the top 10% you need to make over $173k, top 5% is $343 k and top 1% is over 1.1 million as of 2022. But again, this is gross and does not include costs for taxes, FICA, or medical.
One other thought, I’m not sure about Belgium but I know in some countries the state pension covers a significant amount of previous income for retirees whereas in the US our social security system on average only covers about 37% of our previous income (up to a maximum amount) so people are also attempting to save for retirement out of those salaries. For instance, the average social security payment is something like $1,600 a month so for anyone wanting to keep their same standard of living in retirement they are advised to save 15% of their income while working (though very few people actually reach that amount)
For my personal situation, I make six figures but after taxes, retirement, and medical insurance and other benefits are taken out I bring home 52% of my paycheck. From that, I’m still liable for a $3,000 medical deductible each year (meaning my insurance covers almost nothing until I pay that much out of pocket first)
It’s worth noting the pretty vast disparities. This is from 2014, but it described how the UK, generally seen as relatively prosperous pre-Brexit, would be the second poorest state in the US, ahead of only Mississippi.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/08/26/if-the-uk-was-a-u-s-state-it-would-be-the-second-poorest-behind-alabama-and-before-mississippi/
I mean 6 figure salaries are way above average but not uncommon. It’s middle class or upper middle class depending on your city’s cost of living. 7, 8 figure salaries aren’t common. That is rich.